Charcoal
by just a rambling romantic
Summary: Sensei, Kakashi had decided some time later, was an extremely lucky man up until the final years of his life. He rather envied sensei for that, having no such form of anything close to luck himself.  [YonKaka is looming, kakashicentric]
1. Chapter 1

The day that Kakashi had made his blood pact with an animal was one that he would never forget. Sakumo had stopped his son in the middle of a training session and beckoned him to come closer. _Do you want to learn something cool, Kakashi? _His father's voice was always soft when he was addressed his son as opposed to the loud, harsh, commanding tone that he used while leading a squadron. Kakashi's heart leapt in excitement and he bobbed his head. Sakumo knelt next to his son so that he could see better and ruffled the tuft of white hair that stood almost vertically on the boy's scalp.

Kakashi watched dutifully as his father made four hand seals:_ tiger, serpent, dragon, and dog. _Sakumo paused to look up at Kakashi inquiringly, _could you repeat those signs? _Kakashi tried to mimic the seals, and came very quickly to the revelation that seeing something done is not the same thing as actually doing it. _Almost,_ an encouraging chuckle came from Sakumo before he bit his thumb, drawing blood, and slammed both hands onto the ground. Smoke erupted around them and his father swept him off the ground and onto his shoulders where Kakashi came nose to nose with a gigantic, white wolf. In its fanged mouth, a scroll was held and was dropped to the ground where it unraveled slowly, revealing a number of names that were signed in a crusty, brownish ink.

Sakumo set Kakashi down in front of the wolf and held out his palm to the gargantuan beast. From his vantage point on the ground, Kakashi took note that the wolf stood roughly three feet taller than Sakumo, was very definitely male, and had fangs that were longer than his arm. His father looked as if he couldn't care less that the thing that had just appeared could swallow him in one gulp. In fact, Sakumo was even scratching the thing behind the ears. A tail that was as thick as a tree trunk, and probably far more lethal than one, batted madly from side to side, kicking up dirt and chunks earth. A golden eye gazed down upon him and Kakashi found himself gripping the black material of his father's pants as he glared back, making it clear that in no way was he going to just lie down and let himself be eaten.

He felt the weight of his father's hand on his shoulder and looked up into grinning eyes and a relaxed posture. Sakumo never smiled with his mouth, it was in his eyes and in his shoulders. _Kakashi, I would like you to meet someone, _he said.

Introductions had been made, summons explained, and Kakashi had signed his name in blood next to Sakumo's. A gentle hand corrected Kakashi's own as he began to make the seals. A dangerous hand twitched for the kunai holster when an ANBU appeared at the edge of the clearing. A once again gentle hand ruffled Kakashi's hair as Sakumo stood and left.

Tiger. Serpent. Dragon. Dog.

Two gloved hands made contact with the ground and Kakashi met Pakkun for the first time.

It was one of the better memories that Kakashi had of Sakumo, and it was one that he would never let himself forget.

-

The day Kakashi had met his jounin sensei he knew that things were never going to be the same again.

-

Okay.

So I have about five more pages written in this story, but I'm afraid that they may suck, so I'm posting this part up first and waiting for your reaction before I continue on. XD Bear with me, the second chapter may have to be re-written a lot. An engagment fic for Arashinobara Jikkankakyoku!! Love ya darling XD


	2. Chapter 2

The day Kakashi met his jounin sensei he had known that things were never going to be the same again. The 'Yellow Flash' of Konoha had taken him completely by surprise from day one; Kakashi had been standing in the hallway of the Hokage building with Sakumo when he had been pushed back towards the wall by his father, and had only had one glimpse of something green and black in passing before a gust of air hit him, sending him tumbling after the green and black blur—unlike Sakumo, Kakashi had no muscle mass, or mass in general for that matter, to speak of. So the White Fang of Konoha could watch in mild horror for Kakashi's safety—and slightly in annoyance towards the only jounin capable creating such a gust—as his only son was sent tumbling after Kazama Arashi.

Now, there are many types of chakras running through the body and each one is picked up differently. For example: the kind of chakra given off during periods of high emotion is different than the kind used for sticking to the side of a building. Since it is not (normally) used in killing, academy students are not normally introduced to this type of chakra unless they ask about it or are going into a field that would require the specific know-how. However, most high-level shinobi are trained to detect emotional chakra, and therein lays the reason behind the rule: a shinobi must never show emotion.

Of course, stemming an emotion internally is not the same as externally not showing it. Fear is a knee-jerk reaction inbred in every living being (perhaps not in sloth's, but still…), being taken by surprise as he was, even Kakashi felt the cold twinge of numbness in his mind as the wall came speeding towards him. He closed his eyes and prepared for the impact.

But it never came. Instead, a strong arm encircled his waist and he opened his eyes to see two legs that seemed to meld into the coloring of the floorboards beneath as they pumped forwards and back again. Kakashi looked upwards and his hair whipped into his eyes, making them water.

"Sorry kid," the man holding him panted, dashing around the corner and startling a secretary; he held a scroll in his free hand, "Gotta get this to the Hokage right now."

The actual exchange of words between the mysterious flash and the Sandaime Hokage had long been forgotten by Kakashi, but the images still flashed in his mind's eye as clearly as when he had stood in the brightly-lit mission room. The next sequence of action came in a blur, he couldn't be sure whether it was because of the faultiness of his aging mind or whether it had actually happened in such a way.

Sakumo had appeared suddenly in the doorway with a frown etched in his eyebrows and his shoulders tense with anger. He had stalked towards Kakashi's savior, clearly intent on telling him what exactly he thought of the body flicker technique.

To make things a little clearer for you, dear readers, I would like to point out that in the previous statement made in Kakashi's point of view—He had stalked towards Kakashi's savior'—what you or I would call 'stalking towards someone' differs greatly from what Kakashi would call 'stalking towards someone' and by 'someone', I mean Sakumo. As mentioned previously, he was they type to never show much emotion and for his son that became the norm. So what Kakashi would define as stalking would be more of a nonchalant swagger in our eyes.

Either way, Sarutobi had the good sense to stand, attracting their attention, and introduce Sakumo and Kakashi to Kakashi's new jounin sensei and a very surprised and newly-informed Kakashi's Sensei to his new pupil.

Of course matters had only escalated from that point on, and a chunin called Umino had been asked to lead Kakashi out of the room. Kakashi had been disappointed up until Umino introduced him to his son, Iruka, who had been in the year just below where Kakashi's would've been if he hadn't graduated early.

Iruka had smiled shyly and asked politely if Kakashi would like to play with him and few other friends down by the bridges. When Umino had left, Iruka had then bent in and told him secretly that Izumo had found a really cool-looking lizard and that he had promised to show it to them. Kakashi's interest had been peaked, and he would've gladly followed Iruka if not for his father and sensei's untimely departure from the Hokage building. Arashi's left eye had been slightly swollen, and it would turn an ugly purplish color the next day, but he and Sakumo seemed to have reached a consensus and were about to go out to seal the deal with a bowl of ramen.

Sensei, Kakashi had decided some time later, was an extremely lucky man up until the final years of his life. He rather envied sensei for that, having no such form of anything close to luck himself.

Of course, Sakumo would have gone to the ramen stand, if not for the ANBU tapping on his shoulder. So it seemed that the duty fell to the six-year-old Kakashi to go in his father's stead, rather than seeing the lizard Izumo had caught with Iruka. Kakashi had apologized to Iruka as best he could, he even smiled apologetically, but for some reason the five-year-old still left looking like Kakashi had slapped him across the face.

"You shouldn't be so mean to your friends, Kakashi-kun, they'll like you better if you smile more," his sensei had mentioned to him the third time this happened, "You'll look a lot nicer, too," he had teased.

Kakashi had stopped to look up at his sensei, and he had told him, very seriously, that he _had_ been smiling.

His sensei had stopped for a moment and turned to him, "Smile for me," he had said, studying Kakashi with intense blue eyes. Kakashi had relaxed his shoulders and crinkled his eyes up at his sensei in what would have been a dazzling grin to Sakumo, but instead of smiling back, Arashi's mouth pulled up at the sides and exposed brilliantly white teeth and he had let out a fit of coughing that sounded like 'Hah-hah-hah-hah'.

That was another thing about his sensei that had worried Kakashi when he was younger; whenever sensei smiled his mouth would do a weird twitch and show his teeth, sometimes it would stay that way for a long time. One time they had been sitting atop the head of the First Hokage on the Hokage Monument when his sensei had began to smile, and just when his mouth began to twitch upwards Kakashi's hands darted out and prevented the movement. His sensei had looked at him with genuine amazement and had asked what he was doing. Kakashi had hated to point it out to his sensei, but Arashi just needed to know that he had a nervous twitch whenever he smiled. Everyone Arashi spoke with seemed to be very polite whenever it happened in front of them, they even made their mouths twitch back so as to let him know he was doing it, but his sensei never seemed to notice and Kakashi had took it upon himself to tell the Yellow Flash about the nervous twitch because some day there would be someone who wouldn't be as polite as the villagers of Konoha.

Kakashi wasn't sure that he had ever felt more foolish in his life when his sensei had burst out into a fit of violent coughing 'ha's'. Kakashi had frowned at the outburst and snapped that at least he didn't have asthma. The retort had only ushered in more coughing from his sensei, who had then told him that before they could even begin to think about training Kakashi to be a ninja, he would have to learn to become a normal human being.

The root of Kakashi's problems seemed to always be Sakumo. Of course, having the most famous shinobi that ever lived as a father did had its perks—such as developing a strong sense of independence at an early age and boosting a ninja career to heights supposedly unheard-of for someone so young—but it did not however, aid in the development of good people skills. Sakumo was not called the elite of the elite for nothing.

Kakashi tipped his head back sharply and swallowed, pulling his mask into place before snapping the shot glass back down onto the table. The alcohol burned down his throat, making his eyes water. Drunken cheers erupted around him and out of the corner of his left eye he glimpsed Iruka downing a second shot and waving for another. The crowd around them roared gleefully. Dimly Kakashi could hear the exuberant cries of Gai through the cacophony of sound, but in his currently inebriated state he could not think as to what he might be saying. The room swam fuzzily in his vision and it took him a moment to register that someone had placed another shot in front of him; he thought that it was another jounin but couldn't be sure.

"Come on, Hatake, don't let a chunin beat you," a growling voice that smelled of smoke said, Asuma a voice in Kakashi's head chirped enthusiastically in recognition. Wait, beat him? His mind echoed the previous statement a moment later. Kakashi gave Asuma a look that he had often seen Sakumo give another person when asking a question. Suddenly it clicked: he was in a drinking contest against Umino Iruka. But why? Kakashi downed the glass and he felt even more muddled than before as he frowned into the empty cup.

Iruka leaned over to say something to him, but Kakashi couldn't understand the words over the chattering of the onlookers. By the look on Iruka's face it was probably something snide, the scar on his nose had turned an interesting pinkish color. Kakashi suddenly wondered whether Iruka was still mad that he hadn't gone with him to see the lizard that Izumo had caught. Yes, his mind readily accepted the answer. That must be why Iruka looks so angry now.

It was a silly thing to get into a drinking contest over such a small dispute, Kakashi thought before swallowing another shot. He conveniently forgot that he was acting just as foolishly as Iruka. It wasn't his fault he couldn't go see the lizard, Sakumo and Sensei were supposed to have gone out for ramen as a sign that all was well between them, and since Sakumo had to go on a mission Kakashi had had to go in Sakumo's place. Come to think of it, Kakashi swirled a new glass of alcohol thoughtfully, Sakumo never went out for ramen with Sensei even after his mission was finished… he never had the chance to, because shortly afterward he had committed suici… Kakashi choked on the whiskey. His coughing was rough and harsh to his ears, nothing like the sweet 'hah's' Sensei gave when Kakashi would say something particularly odd.

The night after Arashi and Kakashi had visited the Hokage monument, Arashi had told him that smiling with the eyes and smiling with the mouth were basically the same thing in essence except one was sincere and one was a lie. Kakashi had studied at himself closely in the mirror when he had gotten home. He saw the basic features of his father, but his eyes were not quite as black as Sakumo's, and his chin not as square. Excitedly he wondered if he was going to grow up to look like his father, it had been a nice prospect for him then. Then things had changed over the years, but he had initially gotten his wish whether he still wanted it or not. The only thing Kakashi could say now was that at least one of his eyes would never match Sakumo's, and that his chin was still girly and un-masculine as ever, and that when he smiled his mouth would twitch upwards of its own accord. Somewhere along the line he had stopped smiling with his eyes all together, but he was beginning to again, thanks to a few good friends and routine visits from Jiraiya.

It had never bothered Kakashi again that his sensei liked to smile with his mouth and his eyes at the same time, it never really mattered anyway, it was always sincere, but it was his sensei's eyes that Kakashi liked to watch. Arashi had the most beautiful pair of eyes Kakashi had ever seen they were a deep icy-blue with shocks of dark blue around the cornea. Around the age of twelve Kakashi had realized that no matter how deeply he looked into those eyes he could never see the end, and if he wasn't careful he could spend hours staring into the depths without even realizing it.

Kakashi was dimly aware that Obito's eye had begun to sob.

His stomach writhed in discomfort and he could feel bile welling in the back of his throat, but nothing came out and Kakashi looked over to see Iruka speaking to him. He was having a hard time focusing on the words Iruka's lips were forming, lip reading being the next best thing if he couldn't hear him over the drunken crowd, and so he turned to face him fully so he could see better, presenting his body in a three-quarter position to the crowd. Iruka was staring at him in an incredulous way, almost as if he didn't know what was going on. The bar had gone deathly quiet.

"What the hell is going on here?" A loud and crass voice broke through the silence and two large men who looked like fuzzy images of Jiraiya pushed their way through the blurred crowd in unison, to Kakashi it almost looked like they were mirror images.

"Fucking hell, Kakashi," he was vaguely aware of something being pulled back up his face, had he forgotten to pull his mask back up? "I told you not to do anything stupid. Where's Maito Gai? I asked you to keep an eye on him, and you're over here egging him on!" there was another angry swear, but Kakashi hadn't paid attention to what was said, he was too busy trying to remember how to breath.

He frowned, he knew it had something to do with compression and decompression of some muscle, after a time the edges of the room were beginning to get darker. A chakra-infused slap on his back made the air come rushing into his lungs, Kakashi spluttered and gasped, hearing Jiraiya's voice in the distance, "Breath, Kakashi! Goddammit, if you're going to commit suicide have the decency to do it alone instead of in public."

Kakashi knew Jiraiya didn't mean it that way, but a caustic response came out instead of the acrid contents of his stomach, "Where's my tanto? Tonight's a nice night t'die." He slurred. Kakashi couldn't see the look on Jiraiya's face, but he felt a rough hand jerk him from out of his seat on the bar stool and into the arm's of his sensei's mentor.

"Dear lord, I haven't seen him like this since the Yondaime Hokage's passing. Just how much did he drink?" was all Kakashi heard before darkness claimed him.

Flashes of light passed through his befuddled mind and the gentling coughing laugh of Arashi came and went before an electric shock coursed through his body. Kakashi sat straight up, gasping like he had not been breathing for hours and heart pumping wildly. A breathy scream tore from him as hands grasped him from both sides, everything was bright white and Obito's eye felt like it was burning in its socket. Kakashi screamed again, only a pathetic crying sound came out, as he fought against the hands pushing him back. He glimpsed two hands in latex gloves fumbling to undo his jounin vest when he realized what must be happening. He had been captured and the enemy was torturing him with genjutsu. More hands grasped his wrists and ankles and Kakashi snarled at them. Suddenly two hands on his shoulders forced him onto his back and Kakashi clenched his eyes shut, not realizing that he was sobbing.

Caught up in his irrational, alcohol-induced thoughts, Kakashi could almost feel what they were going to do to him; they would start with his hands, breaking each finger one at a time until he broke or they had to move to the other hand. He clenched his jaw shut, biting his tongue until it bled. He was only nineteen but he would not break under torture, he knew he was going to die here, and guessed that it was going to be very painful.

"Can't you give him a sedative or something?" Jiraiya's irritated voice caught Kakashi off-guard, "For god's sake, are you new here or something? I thought you medics knew how an ANBU mind works, he probably thinks he's being tortured or something."

A splutter was heard from one of the interns, but all Kakashi felt was the pressures holding his left leg down loosen, so he kicked up forcefully, connecting with the intern's jaw before he could be restrained. The movement was sluggish compared to his normal speed, but the impact had still left the medic reeling before he could be guided into a chair. He could hear the clicking of shoes running in the hallway before two kunoichi entered into the room, one put a hand on Kakashi's chest and his body went limp. The other left his line of vision to speak with Jiraiya. Obito's eye began to cry anew, the lighting overhead was blinding. Kakashi felt the hand from before release his limbs and prop him up into a sitting position, something soft was placed over his left eye, plunging it into welcome darkness.

"Hatake-san, I'm going to release the jutsu, but you have to relax," the kunoichi who was not conversing with Jiraiya spoke in low hypnotic tones, "we're not here to hurt you, you're in the hospital being treated for alcohol poisoning," she continued and Kakashi could move his arms and legs again. A cup of something black was pushed against his lips and a stern-looking medic with weary eyes addressed Kakashi in the same soothing hypnotic tones as the kunoichi, telling him to drink it. Kakashi took the cup in one shaking hand and raised it to his unmasked mouth, gagging as the bitter taste combined with the flaky texture consumed his taste buds. Maddeningly gentle hands forced him to swallow the concoction of charcoal.

Minutes later the same hands held back his hair as he bent over the side of an empty plastic tub, heaving up much more of the blackness than he had originally swallowed. An IV was placed in his arm and a mask was placed over his nose and mouth, Kakashi found that it was infinitely easier to breath. He was forced to drink another cup of the charcoal, managing to hold it down until one of the kunoichi who had entered the room late put him into a deep sleep.

-

Ho ho, alcohol poisoning is not a fun thing folks, don't go out and get boozed up! (okay, so I've never actually tried it, but after writing this I definitely don't want to! D: )

_Hey, if my description of what happens when they take you in for alcohol poisoning is incorrect PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!! _I got most of my knowledge through various sources, and somewhere I thought I heard that they make you swallow liquid charcoal (thus the title of the story)

Anyways, R&R pleeease!!!!!


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